Politics of Joy
The anointed Servant proclaims Jubilee - liberty to captives (Isaiah 61:1; cf. Leviticus 25:20). Jubilee gives not only freedom from debt-slavery but a return to ancestral property. Liberty takes physical form in possession of land. So Isaiah is still talking about Jubilee when he promises “double” in the land (v. 7).
He describes Israel’s loss of land as a “humiliation” and “shame,” like the shame of Adam as he was driven from Eden. If dispossession is shame and humiliation, Jubilee brings joy: “a shout of joy . . . everlasting joy will be theirs” (v. 7).
Isaiah doesn’t treat joy as an isolated emotional response, an emotion that Israel might feel in the midst of her humiliation. Joy comes when Israel is comforted - when the Spirit-filled Servant intervenes to make things good, to get Israel back to her land, to redistribute Yahweh’s gift. Joy is not only emotional, but a response to economic, social, and political transformation.
In a word, joy is a response to justice, and to the God who loves justice (v. 8).
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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